U.K. Labour's Corbyn Discusses Oct. 29 Election Plan With SNP

(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s main opposition political parties are drawing up plans to push for a general election on Oct. 29, as they seek to outmaneuver Prime Minister Boris Johnson over Brexit.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is in talks with the Scottish National Party’s leadership over an election late next month, with Oct. 29 the date most likely at this stage.

The next election is not due to take place until 2022. In order to trigger a poll sooner, MPs in the U.K. House of Commons must vote for it.

Johnson himself has proposed an election for Oct. 15 as the only way to break the Brexit deadlock in Britain’s Parliament. But Corbyn and his allies are refusing to agree to this. They are worried the premier aims to crash the U.K. out of the EU with no deal on Oct. 31 -- the currently scheduled exit day -- and they want to stop him doing this first.

Johnson’s opponents are aiming to force him to go to Brussels to agree to delay Brexit at an EU summit Oct. 17, before any election takes place.

That would mean the U.K. is safe from Johnson’s threat to take the country out of the bloc with no divorce agreement in place on Oct. 31, an outcome they fear will cause economic damage and legal chaos.

Johnson failed to persuade MPs to vote for an early election on Wednesday. He will try again to ask Parliament to back a snap poll on Monday. Corbyn and the SNP leadership held talks on Thursday to discuss whether to oppose Johnson in this second vote on a snap election.

Corbyn will convene a call of opposition parties for further talks on Friday morning, according to a Labour party statement.

--With assistance from Jessica Shankleman.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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